


now our feet are off the ground (welcome to the good times)

by goatbutt



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Football, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Multi, OT4, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 04:05:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2295950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goatbutt/pseuds/goatbutt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>after finishing last in their league (again) last season, burnie would really, really like to win. especially since joel and the girls team topped their league. his only problem is: the boys are pretty shit</p>
            </blockquote>





	now our feet are off the ground (welcome to the good times)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tamzinrose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamzinrose/gifts).



> yo, timtam, this is for you! look at me, writing roosterteeth fic!!
> 
> okay! i had to figure out the team positions in order for this fic to work in my mind, so here you go: gavin in goals, michael and blaine as central defenders, kerry and miles as wing backs/wide midfielders, jj in central midfield and ray in forward
> 
> * the kids are all 16-17 in this fic  
> 
> * the title is from [ big time rush](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihl4iHN2Ni4), by uh, big time rush  
> 
> 
> you can find me on tumblr at corgimon

burnie takes a moment to look at his completed and full-proof plan for a super season, and then taps the whiteboard he’s written it up on with the end of his marker. the boys watch silently as he turns around to face the room. 

“boys, i think i’ve got it,” he announces, looking back over his shoulder at his work. 

the full-proof plan is scribbled in the top right hand corner of the board, due to the entire left side being used as a merit chart (with the ultimate prize being a pizza party) and the bottom right is covered in photocopied instructions about how to deal with injuries and a handwritten list of contact numbers for medics and physiotherapists. 

kerry clears his throat to get burnie’s attention and raises his hand, a little tentatively, when burnie turns to face him. 

“yes, kerry?” 

“i think you’ve used permanent marker on the whiteboard,” kerry tells him, not meeting burnie’s gaze. 

gavin and michael are the first to laugh, and when burnie sighs they laugh harder, leaning on one another for support. ray is doing a passable job of pretending he isn’t laughing, but miles’ face is turning an alarming shade of red as he tries to hide the fact that he is. 

“you’d better hope you’ve got it, because you’re never going to lose it,” blaine tells burnie, brightly. beside him, jj crumples into a heap of giggles.

“we’re going to go at this like pros, boys,” burnie says, when it becomes clear after a couple of minutes that they’re not going to settle down again, “and we’re not going to come last this year. got it?” 

-

roosterteeth’s first game of the year is against the team that finished last season in fourth place, but burnie has allowed himself to nurture a tiny glimmer of hope, since their best player has since moved up to the next age division. 

gavin is pulling on his gloves and trying to get one of the other boys to take a few warm-up shots against him when burnie waves him over. the other team are doing organised short sprints and side-stepping around markers in a weird faux-military style. michael and ray are chasing each other with water bottles. 

“hold on a sec, gavin,” burnie says, when gavin jogs over to his side. gavin waits patiently as burnie juggles the team sheets and the little book he uses to keep track of scores before giving up and dumping them all on the grass. there’s a distant sound that sounds like kerry screaming, but neither of them pay it any attention. 

“gavin,” burnie starts, looking down at the lad. he’s tightening one of his gloves nervously, blinking back up at burnie. burnie sets his hands on gavin’s shoulders and turns him so that he’s facing one of the sets of goalposts, at the bottom of the field. there’s a diner on the other side of the road. burnie sighs. 

“gav, do you remember what i told you at our last training session? when you let ray score like, a hundred goals and you almost had a panic attack?”

“yeah,” smiles gavin, “‘course i do, burnie.” 

"alright, alright. that's good, gavin." burnie looks up and squints into the sun. "do you mind telling me what that was?"

"it's not my fault in the slightest if the other team score a goal."

burnie sighs. 

the other team have moved into a circle and are doing their stretches as their coach walks around in the middle and shouts at them. kerry has appeared, looking no worse for wear despite the earlier screaming and is now lying on the grass with michael. every so often they pick handfuls and throw them at each other. ray is checking on his inhaler, but miles, jj and blaine are still missing. 

“well,” burnie continues, having found enough strength to go on, “you see, gavin - there is a little bit of responsibility in your role on this team, gavin. it is your job to stop the ball, after all.” 

"last training you said the others were bastards to let the ball get to me in the first place, burnie."

"i know. just. gavin. promise me you will try and stop the ball." burnie turns gavin back around again so that they’re looking at each other, and shakes him a little by his shoulders. "please just try."

“of course i’m going to try, burnie! i’d be a bit of a cock if i didn’t, wouldn’t i?” gavin scoffs, rolling his eyes. 

burnie’s chance to reply is cut off by geoff and griffon walking towards them, shouting encouraging messages to the members of team roosterteeth. they've got beers tucked under their arms and geoff is twirling the keys to the minibus around his finger.

“it’s huddle time!” burnie calls, watching as all of the team run to bundle around him. miles, jj and blaine have to climb over the fence to get back into the football field, but they make it in time. miles presents kerry with a daisy chain and sets it on top of his head, like a crown.

burnie gives the standard pep talk, but all the kids ignore him in favour of having their own, private conversations. 

“team nice dynamite?” gavin whispers to michael, who nods fiercley and fistbumps him. 

“always, gavin. let’s show these fuckers.” 

when the pep talk and secret conversations are done, they all throw their hands in the middle, looking determined and like an actual team. 

“you ready guys?” burnie asks them. kerry shakes his head with a laugh, and miles pulls his hand back from the pile to flick kerry in the ear and manages to get it back in the middle in record time.

“just do your best. have fun, okay?” 

they all look at ray to kick off roosterteeth’s official let’s play shout. they all lift their hands into the air afterwards, and turn to run to their places on the field. 

“go roosterteeth!” gavin shouts, jogging to the back goalposts with michael and blaine by his side. when they get to the back line, gavin slaps michael for luck before sprinting on down to the net before michael can hit him back. 

-

by half time, they’re down 4-0, which is actually a better start than they’ve had to a league in a couple of years. 

“this is torture!” gavin whines, sitting down beside miles and kerry, who are using the break to try and make blades of grass work as instruments like they do in movies. 

“you’re doing fine,” burnie tells him, passing over a water bottle. gavin rips off his gloves, splashes his face with the water and then pours some in his hair. 

“don’t shake that over me,” michael warns, but gavin ignores him, shaking his head and sending drops of water flying everywhere. “you goddamn motherucker,” michael growls. 

the coach of the other team is pacing in front of them, looking angry. when he’s paced in front of them enough to psyche them out, he begins to shout so hard that he actually turns a little purple. 

miles starts to giggle when the coach throws the team sheets to the ground, but burnie shushes him. 

"he's probably mad because they're only beating you by four!" geoff calls over to them, with a smirk.

"i would be," mumbles jj. blaine snorts a laugh.

“shut up, we’re doing great,” michael insists. “i’m going to destroy their forward line this half,” he vows. when burnie glares at him, he quickly adds, “at football, of course.” 

just before the referee signals the end of half-time lindsay and meg appear, climbing over the fence to sit cross-legged on the sideline. michael and gavin immediately go over to talk to them, ignoring burnie, who’s trying once again to explain the full-proof plan. 

“sorry we missed the start,” meg apologises, “buses are dumb. how’s it going?” 

they shrug. both meg and lindsay are wearing the tracksuits the roosterteeth girls team got last year for topping their league last season. burnie cried when he was presenting them to joel at the celebratory dinner. tears of pride, he claimed, but everyone knew it was tears of knowing he had to go back to the boys. 

“are you losing by much?” lindsay asks. 

“it’s four nil,” gavin admits, “which isn’t awful, for us, but it’s the worst match of my life. these guys just wallop the ball in the vague direction of the net! i think i’m bruising already.” 

the whistle blows, and they both kiss the girls before running back to the huddle. burnie has just finished his talk and they’re all getting ready for the let’s play shout. 

after the huddle breaks apart, gavin turns to run to the other goalposts before he makes a shocking discovery. “hang on!” he shouts, turning in a panicked circle and looking at the ground, “i’ve lost my gloves!” 

“where’s me gloves?” michael mocks, waiting for him a few steps in front. blaine’s already almost in his position. 

"by the water bottles," burnie points, without even properly looking up from his phone. "do me proud guys! you're all doing great!"

"go team!" gavin shouts, but it's a bit muffled by the glove he's carrying over in his mouth as he tries to tighten the other one.

-

the match ends up at an almost respectable 6-1. gavin fell and got winded enough to cause a quick medical drama, michael got a yellow card for cursing and the other team has started the season off with three points compared to roosterteeth’s zero, but they also scored an own goal in some sort of miracle. 

"good job everybody! good game!" burnie shouts over them, in the changing rooms. "get done quickly, okay? there's a diner opposite here that we're going to hit before heading home."

-

geoff and griffon offer lindsay and meg a ride home in the minibus, so they don’t have to worry about catching a bus back. everyone happily heads over to the diner for pancakes and ice-cream, shouting over one another to be heard. 

they take up a couple of booths in the diner, automatically sorting out who is next to who without any fuss. gavin, michael, meg and lindsay get the booth closest to the adults, the boys sitting on one side of the table and the girls sitting on the other. 

"would you all shut up?" burnie asks from where he’s standing in the middle of the floor, glaring at blaine until he trails off mid sentence. "alright, alright. pancakes and ice-cream for everyone, my treat. i’m coming around to get drink orders."

“hey,” lindsay whispers, leaning over the table so that the boys can hear her better, “guess what?” 

"what?"

"you boys are coming to cheer us on for our first game in the top league. joel and burnie have decided that you need the learning experience and we need the support." 

“these girls are better than we’re used to,” meg admits, biting her lip and glancing at lindsay, “like, really good.” 

“shut up,” michael grins, “you’re great. of course you’re going to beat them all.” 

“what are the odds,” gavin says, rubbing at a bruising part of his arm, “that those guys in those other teams are on steroids?” 

“the odds are lower than those of you being an idiot,” lindsay tells him, truthfully. 

“what’s this, lovebirds?” burnie asks, coming over to their table with his list of everyone’s drinks orders, “please don’t tell me you’re talking about steroids again, gavin.” 

“check their piss! i’m right,” gavin argues, poking at his bruise. 

there’s the unmistakable sound of ray’s laugh from the booth behind them. he kneels up on his seat, looking over the partition. 

“not again,” he laughs. 

“i need your drink orders,” burnie reminds them, pointing at them with his pencil, “and for any lactose intolerant losers at this table, what sauce do you want on your pancakes?” 

“if we were a winning team, you’d be giving us steroids on our pancakes,” gavin mumbles. 

“seems everyone has a problem in this shitty league,” ray says, with another laugh, before he sits back down and vanishes behind the partition again.

-

“i have a surprise!” burnie announces, before their next training session. they all stop tying their laces and fixing their shin guards to look up at him hopefully, praying that the training is actually cancelled and that they can just go outside and play a friendly game before deciding to give up at their own time. 

“you all seem a little bit...lacking in inspiration,” burnie continues, after visibly struggling to find the right words, “so joel and i have arranged for you to train with the girls for a couple of sessions, and then you’re going to go cheer them on at their first game!” 

“the girls are here?” gavin asks, surprised. neither meg nor lindsay had mentioned anything like this to him and michael, which means it must have been a really big secret. 

“yeah. turns out that there were two field schedules floating around and joel and i both booked it for tonight, so joined training it is.” 

gavin nods in understanding. it makes a lot more sense now he knows it was actually because of a mistake.

“get kitted up and get out there! joel and i will be waiting for you!”

-

by the time the boys actually make it out to the field, the girls have set up cones and are doing drills, dribbling the ball around them in tight, controlled circles. burnie and joel are laughing at something over to the side, shaking their heads. 

“join in!” burnie says, when he sees the boys standing around and watching. 

they trail to the back of the line miserably, intimidated by the impossible looking task. arryn swaps places with kara in the line so she can be beside miles and kerry and barbara, who has just finished running the drill, runs to join the line behind the boys. 

“hey guys,” she smiles, stretching her arms behind her head, “this should be fun, right?” 

it’s not really fun at all. 

even blaine, who is the best on their team at actually playing football, takes easily twice as long as any of the girls at the control drill. gavin stumbles over one of the agility hurdles and ends up almost splitting his head, so there’s a time out while he drinks some orange juice and tries to get over the shock. 

after that, joel instructs them all to jog a lap of the field. meg, lindsay, gavin and michael barely make a jog so that they can stay close to each other, talking as they go, but miles and kerry flat out refuse to do it at all. 

“we quit the team,” miles says, sitting down on the ground, “sorry, burnie.” 

“guys,” burnie sighs, rubbing his forehead, “please don’t do this.” 

joel almost doubles over with his sudden laughter, even going as far as pretending to wipe some tears from his eyes. burnie is always telling him horror stories of the boys in training whenever they decide they just don’t want to do anything more, but he’s never witnessed it actually happening. 

miles takes off his right football boot and shoves it into burnie’s chest. burnie lets it fall to the grass, his face impassive. miles and kerry turn and walk away from burnie and joel silently, miles limping a bit because of his sudden lack of shoe. 

in a stunning turn of events, jj is actually one of the first people to finish the lap, but unsurprisingly, meg, michael, lindsay and gavin finish last. on the final width of the field they’d actually slowed to a walk so that they could plan a dinner date after training. 

-

after training for two hours, both teams sit in front of joel and burnie on the grass so they can hear the travelling arrangements for the girls match tomorrow. miles and kerry, who lay down in the middle of the pitch and looked at the clouds after quitting, stroll back over and join the team again. 

“we’ve decided to un-quit,” kerry announces. burnie throws miles back his shoe. 

“okay, we’re actually going to have to hire a bus to get to the game,” joel says, “since both teams are too much for even geoff and griffon ramsey to transport in the minibus.” 

“are they still coming?” gavin asks. 

“no party without them, little ramsey-free.” 

the girls all look nervous as they talk about the match. they’re going to travel in their tracksuits and act as professional and focused as they can. joel and burnie both insist over and over that they’re good enough to win this league as well. they really are talented. 

“you’ll be fine,” blaine says, tackling barbara with a hug, “you’d never let me down, would you?” 

“fuck you,” she laughs, pushing him off. 

“we get kitbags if we win this year,” kara reminds the girls, when they’re all getting up to leave. 

“burnie,” gavin says, jogging up beside him, “will you drive us to mcdonalds so we can have a dinner date?” 

“romance still lives,” joel mutters. 

-

gavin sits in the passenger seat beside burnie, pawing through the glove compartment and trying on the sunglasses he finds in it, buried under coupons for a pizza parlour. 

“is our pizza party going to be free for you?” he demands, lifting one of them up and passing it back to the other three so they can see. 

“look at this! i knew there was a catch!” michael exclaims, “but we can be convinced to keep quiet about this, burns.” 

“ being all new jersey on me, huh? alright, you can keep the coupon.” 

he makes them come around to his window and promise not to get into any trouble when he lets them off. michael rolls his eyes, but he still answers of all of burnie’s questions seriously. 

“don’t forget about tomorrow,” burnie reminds the girls, gently, “and don’t worry about it either. you’re brilliant, alright?” 

meg and lindsay both blush, and thank him, and then gavin and michael drag them away for their date. 

-

the girls win their match 2-3, and the boys all show up with matching homemade shirts declaring their support and love for roosterteeth. 

they cheer with enthusiasm that burnie didn’t even know they possessed and even start a seven person mexican wave, which grows into a nine person version once griffon and geoff see what they’re doing, and eventually a ten person one when burnie gives in. 

the boys wait on the bus for the girls to change afterwards, and when they climb on, they are greeting with loud cheering and clapping. geoff and griffon insist on taking photos of everyone in their seat before the bus drives off. michael has given lindsay his homemade shirt, which has a cartoon of her on it, and produced one of his hoodies from her kit bag. 

arryn starts a wave of singing from where she’s sitting between miles and kerry in the back seat that slowly trickles up the whole bus and builds to end up with all the kids and griffon singing their way through the entire newsies soundtrack. 

-

"stop that!" burnie calls from the front of the minibus, trying to break up gavin and michael’s scuffle, which had started as a small slap fight because gavin wanted to change the song they were listening to, but michael wouldn’t let him. 

gavin's squealing and laughing, trying to squirm away from michael and hit him at the same time while michael's growling and cursing, pushing gavin back. the others are all cheering them on and throwing in a couple of slaps to the pair every so often, to keep the fight going. 

"guys!" geoff calls, from the driver seat. "you should be getting ready for the game, because we’re going to be late. again.” 

“yeah, thanks gavin,” jj frowns, “you’re the one who made us stop.” 

“i can’t help it!” gavin protests, halting the fight so that he can defend himself, “i’m not even the only one who felt travel sick! it’s geoff’s bloody awful driving!” 

"dude," michael grins, shuffling in his seat so he sits up straighter and then kneeling so that everyone in the minibus can see him. the boys turn to face him, most of them already knowing what to expect. gavin looks a little ill. 

"guys, i have the _best_ story about travel sickness."

"absolutely not, michael," burnie rules, "get ready to go, guys. get your shin guards, socks, shorts and boots on. gavin, please don’t forget you need your gloves. let's hustle."

none of them make any move to start getting ready, and burnie can tell by the look on michael’s face that he’s just waiting for burnie to turn back around again to begin his horror story about travel sickness. he sighs. 

“the first person to be ready wins a merit sticker for the pizza race,” he rules, rolling his eyes when all the lads leap into action, scrambling to pull their bags closer and kicking their shoes off. 

ray throws the socks that he wore in their last training session out of the bag, almost hitting blaine in the face with one of them, despite sitting two rows away from him. gavin groans, and rests his forehead against the cool window for a second or two. 

“oh,” ray says, digging through his bag. “hm. i seem to have, uh, that seems to be it. burnie?” 

“yes ray?”

“i don’t have any socks,” ray admits, quietly. 

miles throws the sock that hit blaine back at ray, and it hits him on the back of the head, like it’s sealing his fate that he’ll have to wear the gross, dirty pair he forgot to put in the laundry.

“aha!” exclaims geoff. "i've been prepared for this day for a while! though honestly, i thought it would be because gavin forgot that he'd need them; but there's a spare pair in the glove compartment, buddy."

"sweet! thanks, geoff."

burnie finds the socks and throws them at ray, who catches them and stuffs the old ones back into his back. 

"yeah," gavin echoes him, deadpan. "thanks, geoffrey."

"we all got to take extra precautions with you, gavin," geoff smiles, looking back at him in the rearview mirror with fondness.

-

as geoff predicted, they're late, but they arrive late enough that the other team have already finished their warm up and have moved on to just kicking a couple of balls about between pairs and trios. when the roosterteeth minibus pulls up, they all stop and watch the team line out and wait for burnie to give them their jerseys. 

gavin, who’s the captain for the day, gets the armband and a teamsheet shoved into his hands and runs off to where the referee and the captain of the other team are waiting, to do the toss. 

“let’s go, guys,” he says, clapping his hands. “no time for a warm-up, not that it’ll matter to you.” 

they do the let’s play huddle and shout as soon as they get onto the field and rejoin gavin, and break apart immediately afterwards to start the game.

burnie takes his usual spot on the bench and takes out his scorekeeping book, waiting for geoff to park the bus and make his way down the field. the coach of the other team, who is familiar to burnie in some, weird way, wanders over to talk to him when he sees burnie sitting alone.

“yeah, sorry for being late,” burnie apologises, before the other man can say anything. he’s wearing a baseball cap that’s not actually for any team, but it’s almost the same colour as his team’s shirts, so burnie supposes he can kind of see the connection. 

“oh don’t worry about it,” the guy smiles, waving it off, “in fact, i’m here to ask you to be lenient with us as well. we’ve had a hell of a week.” 

“oh yeah?” 

the coach takes off his hand and rubs his head before putting it back on. on the field, michael and the guy he’s marking look like they’re about to start fighting at any moment, and burnie motions for michael to cut it out. 

“we’ve had to put two younger kids in today because of a food poisoning disaster,” the coach admits, “so i just want to ask you to ask your boys to be easy on them. they don’t need to be hurt by these bigger kids running around, you know?” 

“sure,” burnie agrees, easily. “i don’t think you need to worry. i’m amazed you would even ask, with roosterteeth’s reputation as a team.” 

“you have more than one reputation as a team,” the other coach mutters, looking at michael. burnie immediately knows why the man seems so familiar, and has a flashback of michael breaking a kid from this team’s nose the year before. 

“he’s not any trouble any more,” burnie promises, praying michael won’t prove him wrong. 

-

“you guys were amazing out there!” burnie says, when the match is over. roosterteeth actually won the game and played very well to do it, with gavin even making a couple of spectacular saves. 

the whole team are visibly delighted, hugging one another and cheering. miles is giving kerry a piggyback and michael and gavin kissed as soon as they heard the final whistle. they’re all acting like they’ve just won a final, even geoff, who lifted gavin off the ground in a bone crushing hug when he ran over to the sideline. 

both geoff and burnie agreed, when it looked like the boys were actually going to win something, not to tell them about the two younger kids. michael got a general warning not to start any fights or play dirty at half time, but he’d deserved it anyway, with how he was shouldering his marker.

burnie writes the final score in his little book with a huge bubble of pride growing inside of him, and thinks about the dawning of a new age for roosterteeth. 

-

it’s not a new age for roosterteeth. 

even though their win even inspires another boy - caleb - to join the team, they lose all every one of their next matches, despite the fact that they have found a newborn hunger for winning and the team throwing themselves into every match with enthusiasm and optimism. 

in comparison, the girls continue to do very well, only drawing one of their games and managing to win all of the others. when it’s possible, both teams travel to support the other, and are very vocal and committed spectators whenever they do. 

-

in the end, the girls topping their league depends on another team losing their last match. as soon as they know that they’ve come first again, they start planning a huge party in the pavilion. it’s partly a celebration for them and partly an attempt to cheer the boys up after such a disappointing end to the season. 

gavin and michael supply the party with alcohol, and arryn and barbara bake cupcakes and spend a lot of time icing them to look like the support shirts the boys made to go and watch their first match in, as well as a huge rainbow sponge cake. 

they hang banners from the walls, including a happy birthday one that caleb brought and claimed was an acceptable decoration for their ultimate party. 

“we need to figure out a sneaky way to invite joel and burnie,” kara says, “like a reverse surprise party.” 

“you mean a normal party?” lindsay asks, tying off a balloon and kicking it across the floor at michael. 

“no, no. like, instead of a surprise party thrown _for_ the people who deserve a party, this one is thrown _by_ them.” 

eventually, they agree that they’ll tell geoff and griffon the plan and leave it to them to get joel and burnie to the party. by the time they arrive, it’s already in full swing, with all the kids dancing together and half the cake already vanished. it’s obvious some of them have been drinking, as well, but it’s not exactly like the adults in front of them are the best role models in that regard. 

“i believe,” burnie announces, shouting to be heard over the music, “that we owe you kids pizza!” 

he’s holding a stack of pizza boxes underneath his arm, and the kids descend upon him with cheers and repeated thanks. gavin gives griffon a kiss on the cheek when he’s making his way back to the dance floor with his slice of pizza, and kerry declares himself winner of the merit award and takes a slice in each hand. 

when the party winds down, jj switches off the music and the boys walk over to where the adults are sitting, standing in a line in front of burnie and looking solemn. 

“what’s up?” burnie asks, setting his bottle of beer and slice of cake aside. 

“we want to apologise to you for being such a rubbish team,” gavin says, his gaze on the floor. “sorry for ruining your super-season plan, burnie.” 

there is a chorus of several more sheepish sounding sorries from the lads, who are all avoiding burnie’s gaze. 

“guys, look at me,” he says, smiling and shaking his head when they do. “guys, come on. i love roosterteeth. i love all of you little idiots. don’t ever apologise to me for that, alright? it’s about having fun.” 

gavin actually sniffs like he's started to cry. burnie gets up and pulls him in for a comforting hug, rubbing him on the back before opening his arms out and grabbing michael and miles, who were standing on either side of gavin. 

“group hug,” he demands. the boys all pile in on top of him and gavin, hugging each other and mumbling things between them. after a couple of minutes, griffon gets up and joins in, and then all of a sudden, it’s one giant roosterteeth group hug, with all the girls and geoff and joel. 

“see you all next season,” burnie says to gavin, when the hug starts breaking apart. gavin nods against burnie’s chest, ducking away when burnie ruffles his hair. 

-

“this one matches the tracksuit better,” joel hums, showing burnie one of his open tags, “but the writing on this one is bigger and easier to read.” 

burnie looks through all joel’s open tags, which are just picture after picture of what his custom kit bag would look like, with several different size options and a couple of colour variations. 

“they all look pretty good. three is probably my favourite,” he says, leaning back in his chair and turning so he can see out the window that overlooks some of the field. 

he’s just in time to see geoff’s minibus pull up in the parking lot, but before he can ask joel if had he also invited griffon and geoff to fight over kit bag designs lindsay hops out. she’s followed, of course, by gavin and michael and meg, who has a picnic basket on one arm and her puppy under the other. 

they climb over the fence into the field, with michael taking the dog and gavin taking the basket to let meg get over. lindsay says something, michael sets the dog on the ground, and then they all race off to their picnic spot, which burnie can’t see from where he’s sitting.


End file.
